A recent item was another bunch of VC were looking at buying F1 for $8.5 billion. They are not philanthropists - that outlay has to be recouped and then some. They will not be looking at the long term or what is exactly healthy for the sport. However the item also mentioned with the EU complaint looming, Bernies' whacky news comments and the financial health of some of the teams, they were getting cold water over the deal.
The sport should be under some sort of stewardship but the money to purchase the sport has to come from somewhere and once you get the money they want return on that investment and sooner the better.
Lets say we start a Kickstarter fund to purchase F1+. The current record is a couple of million. We need a 4 orders of magnitude more. You will never get $8b in pledges. You need millions of people pledging a large amount of money each. Never going to happen so you will also need investors. F1 makes £1.1 billion a year and (roughly) £550m goes to CVC, £550m to the teams, with most going to Ferrari (coming 3rd still means they get more revenue than the champions).
How do we make F1 a healthier sport? By taking less revenue out.
- I would shift the money to the teams to 60/40 the revenue. Why not more? Investors will need to be paid. Of the extra money the lower teams would get more while the top teams won't see much difference.
- I would drastically lower the historic payments. Ideally there would be none and all revenue would be paid on merit, but I am also a realist and there would be screaming if there were none.
- Transparency on the rules of the sport. No secret agreements.
- No Ferrari veto.
- Relax engine rules but also apply a cost cap on the engines.
- No standalone fly away races.
- Reinstate France and Germany races
- For territories that do not carry F1 an online season pass will be available for a small amount.
So here is my Kickstarter manifesto:
- All pledgers will get 2x money back. The smaller pledges will be serviced first so the larger the pledge the later you will receive your money. No interest will be paid on the pledge.
- £50: Polo necks/T-shirt.
- £300: A 3-day pass to event of your choice (you will need to make your own way there).
- £10,000: A VIP 5* F1 race of your choice.
- £180,000: A VIP 5* F1 tour for a season.
Once everyone has been paid the larger changes to the sport can happen track charges can be reduced, prize money increased but before that there is a long period of pain to endure. It will take 20 years of current revenue to pay off but hopefully we will be able to increase profits while being long term sustainable.
Can you think of other pledge levels? Or changes to make the sport healthier.
(+ I have actually been considering this for a while as a small protest against the current way it is run).